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That shed is loving awesome. I fully expect that monstrosity will be a soggy pile of sawdust before the winter. Even if it doesn't rain at all, the moisture it pulls out of the wet ground should be more than enough to topple it. The GF and I purchased the back half of an 8 year old duplex in the Commercial Drive area a little over 2 years ago. It was during the construction boom, so while not unsafe, it was built very much on the cheap. I've spent the last 2 years slowly learning the basics of home repair by fixing the more egregious issues. The biggest problem we had was some surface mold in the attic. The 2nd floor bathrooms are vented through the soffit, so I thought some of the moist air was being blown back into the attic through the vents. It turns out the lazy shitheel builders had only pointed the run at the soffit vent, leaving a 3-4 inch gap. They had not actually attached the loving run, possibly because the pitch of the roof was too steep at that point to easily access the soffit connection. I ended up re-running the exhaust directly up through the roof. It was still a great deal, even with all the construction issues. There's a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment in a new building 4 houses up from us going for $70k more than we paid for our 3-bedroom, 2.5 bath with private back yard and detached garage. 
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Apr 4, 2013 00:04
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Review sites are a good way to find trades, but always back check the users who have left reviews. Your company has 10 positive reviews, but every one of the users signed up on the same date and/or have only left that one review?  Google is especially terrible for this.I found the home inspector we hired through Homestars, a Canadian construction/trades review site. He was loving insane, but in a good way. It took him 3 hours to inspect the back half of our duplex and provided us with an 18 page report with pictures. We still ended up buying the place as most of the problems were fixable or just cheap construction (and the price was right), but he went way above & beyond the call of duty. I've seen and heard of other inspectors doing nothing but a 15 minute cursory walk around the property, mumble "mmm-hmmm" at the plumbing, then stab a moisture detector through the drywall somewhere inconspicuous to look for a leaky building envelope.
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Apr 7, 2013 02:26
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NancyPants posted:
I would have guessed that this was an "access panel" for your water main shutoff valve (particularly if you have sprinklers) if it didn't appear to be directly above your electrical box...
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Jul 11, 2013 19:13
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My Lovely Horse posted:If this thread has taught me anything it's that this is no reason to assume it wouldn't be the water valve, and that in fact it almost certainly is. This was my thought as well, but I was trying to be positive. 
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Jul 11, 2013 20:37
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Like this? http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3346097 Thread picture links are dead, but fortunately there are websites like the Internet Wayback Machine!        e. vvv 
Dillbag fucked around with this message at 04:31 on Jul 25, 2013 |
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Jul 25, 2013 03:55
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Mexico City was interesting. Many of the buildings under 3 or 4 stories still had rebar sticking out of the roof or ground because apparently there's a property tax that only gets applied to "finished" buildings. People never cut off/clean up the rebar and claim their building is unfinished for the life of the structure. This is the best photo I could find without too much effort. 
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Oct 28, 2013 18:43
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Stolen from the PYF Funny Pictures thread:particle409 posted:Not sure if this is funny, bad-rear end, or what. Apparently a tornado took the roof up, blew the blinds up, then the roof came back down on the blinds.
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Nov 20, 2013 03:22
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I'm more amazed that the paper tape is still sticky/stuck after 20+ years.
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Feb 16, 2014 22:05
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kid sinister posted:Found another one! A reverse GIS on this shows that This Old House's Home Inspection Nightmares has finally updated. Lots of great stuff there, like:  and  "This shower stall permanently covers a sump pump. They kept the electrical receptacle where it was and built the shower around it! That takes the cake, but the icing is that the receptacle is incorrectly wired, with hot and neutral reversed, and with no GFCI protection."
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Mar 6, 2014 00:59
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slap me silly posted:Hoo hoo, wow. Sounds a lot like my bathroom fan and ceiling fan experiences, but x3. Hope all the renters are listening! I had a mold problem in my attic that I finally traced to my master bathroom fan exhaust. The run appeared to be connected to a soffit vent, which is not a great idea to begin with. It turns out the run was only pointed at the soffit vent because the moron builders installed the run after they had installed the ceilings. The pitch against the roof was too steep to maneuver in and and actually attach the run so they just aimed it in in the general direction of the vent from half a foot away. loving idiots. I ended up having a roofer cut and install a roof vent directly over the bathroom and re-run the exhaust.
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Apr 7, 2014 22:17
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I don't know why any of you people are listening to a so-called "fire inspector" about "fire safety" and "building codes" when every Joe public on the internet has more knowledge and experience on the subject. It's not like there's some sort of horrific, multi-dozen fatality incident blamed on the flamability of foam rubber soundproofing in an enclosed space in recent memory that we can refer to or anything.
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Apr 14, 2014 03:06
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We're being sarcastic and pedantic because we're goons and it's the internet. I apologize if I'm being an anally retentive buzzkill. Of course it's up to you to weigh the risk of having a quieter space while increasing the possibility of your insurance not covering you in a fire or dying of toxic smoke inhalation before your corpse is charred beyond recognition vs the extreme unlikelihood that you would ever have a fire or even a visit from a fire inspector in the first place. Let's all shake hands and make fun of these dumb fuckers I posted about back in July again!
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Apr 14, 2014 06:12
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ColHannibal posted:Real estate agent was a ditz who did poo poo and she supplied an inspector she had "been working with for years". One of the biggest scams in todays real estate market is collusion between a real estate agent and an inspector. That inspector was not working for you, he was working for the agent to get her the sale. I personally world have fired them both the minute she pushed for her own inspector. I wholeheartedly recommend hiring an inspector who advertises "don't loving trust realtors" as part of their advertising. That's not to say don't trust your realtor, but you're not getting an inspector who is in the agents pocket. We hired a guy who refused to talk to either party's agent, did a 4 hour inspection and provided us with a 20 page binder with photos of all the deficiencies as well as the steps need to correct them. We still bought the property, but I knew exactly what the issues were and what I needed to do to fix them.
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May 19, 2014 19:50
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Where I live, by law the landlord must return the deposit within 15 days of ending your tenancy and deductions can only be take place with your written consent or when ordered by arbitration.
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May 29, 2014 03:54
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If a seller ever tries to talk you into waiving the disclosure notice/statement, walk away, no matter how sweet the deal.
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Jul 10, 2014 04:56
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Dante Logos posted:So what you are saying that there is a solid ghost hunting market right now? Same thing happened a few years ago with an elder/end of life hospice opening up near a few residential buildings in a primarily Asian neighbourhood in Vancouver. I'm mixed Chinese and I'm pretty convinced these days that it's just an excuse so the property owners can save face by appearing to be silly superstitious folk when they're really just greedy, insensitive, ageist assholes who are only concerned about their property values.
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Jul 29, 2014 22:08
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Babygravy posted:There's a few new developments of high rise where I live funded by Chinese buyers. The oddest thing I heard is them wanting to skip every level with a 4 in it turning them into dual level apartments, mechanical floors or just renaming the http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraphobia In Cantonese (and Mandarin, I think) the number 4 sounds like the word for death and the number 8 sounds like the word for wealth. Hence no 4th floor or Chinese driving cars with 4 in the license plate, but any number of Happy Golden Lucky 888 Produce Delivery trucks on the road.
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Jul 30, 2014 04:01
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Jamus posted:(I'd post this in the OSHA thread but I can't find it) Somebody managed to one up the pool in the basement photo. Hopefully the building they did that in was built to code! The first thing that popped into my head when I saw the fist shot was "must be Russia". I'm glad I was not disappointed. Here's some hilarious content from the Vancouver thread. less than three posted:Death House, a steal at only $500k!
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Jul 31, 2014 07:05
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ColHannibal posted:Yea, I would kill for something like that in that price range. That listing is priceless. "CASH ONLY, BE AWARE HOUSE NEED CITY PERMIT TO RE BUILT IT, WHEN YOU VIEW THE HOUSE MAKE SURE HAVE LICENSE CONTRACTOR WITH YOU"
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Aug 1, 2014 17:11
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It's called "A.C. Slatering" and I believe it was coined by goons in response to the German "poo poo shelf" toilet.
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Aug 20, 2014 17:30
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Neo Duckberg posted:Holmes Inspection is on Netflix now. Of course it's not on Netflix in Canada, where it was filmed. Thank goodness for Hola!
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Oct 4, 2014 22:08
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Neo Duckberg posted:Sorry. 
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Oct 5, 2014 02:32
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lonelywurm posted:If someone's done it with cement, then there's simply no question someone's done it with expanding foam. quote:A thin layer of feces coated the surface and crevices. Grooves in the mass were consistent with rectal mucosal folds. A layer of concrete was chipped off the upper part of the specimen and revealed a white plastic ping-pong ball.
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Oct 22, 2014 04:47
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This guy did our home inspection. I got a 25-page report similar to this (without as many deficiencies, of course) and I got to watch him freak the poo poo out of my realtor. Best $650 I've ever spent.
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Jan 6, 2015 00:56
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I found the guy on Homestars.com, which is Canada-only, I believe.. As with any review site, YMMV.
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Jan 7, 2015 19:12
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Baronjutter posted:I've been involved with countless projects in urban environments where everyone has some 50-100 year old fence or stone wall between their property and then it turns out things are multiple-feet off. How about a driveway and an rear end in a top hat neighbour? 
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Jan 20, 2015 18:37
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Sorry, I couldn't manage to dig up the link either. But I'm pretty sure BM got the gist of it.
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Jan 20, 2015 19:19
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Found it, and it's still there as of last year! https://www.google.ca/maps/@30.268761,-97.724995,3a,75y,169.07h,85.96t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sW3-605ULMpAlHrhNT5TU2Q!2e0
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Jan 20, 2015 23:33
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Wild EEPROM posted:I'd pay extra to not have to read all this HOA poo poo that comes up every dozen pages or so and goes on for another dozen pages There are a couple thread tags you can use that will do exactly this. Go hog wild!
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Jan 24, 2015 08:14
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Nostalgia4Butts posted:At our condo complex parking in someone else's spot is an act of war. The accepted response is to sit there and lay on the horn until someone comes out to take the walk of shame. Related quote:
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Jan 30, 2015 22:34
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ExplodingSims posted:The other kinda sketchy thing: I have no idea how this would pass inspection, unless you live in Russia or some other hellhole.
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Feb 26, 2015 07:34
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That's him. Great inspector but one warning: he will freak the poo poo out of your realtor. Doesn't trust them, doesn't like them. Keep them separate if you have good relationship with your agent. Not cheap either but EXTREMELY thorough.
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Mar 9, 2015 07:04
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The home inspection guy is way way on the side of "every realtor is out to get you", but that's not something I necessarily believe. But I do think you should step back and think about things if your realtor ever tries to recommend their own home inspector. That's a big red flag for me.
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Mar 11, 2015 18:05
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Captain Cool posted:What's your plan when you move out? Patching a hole in the ground (if the owners even care) seems easier than getting rid of 400lbs of concrete. Not if you are doing it legally/ethically.
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Mar 20, 2015 01:07
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nmfree posted:It never ceases to amaze me watching videos on Jim the Realtor's Youtube channel that so many people are willing to pay $1- 2.5 million for houses that are literally 3 feet away from each other. 3 feet away? poo poo, that's enough space for a hammock! I live in Vancouver near a neighbourhood called Strathcona where the 60 to 100 year old houses are built so close together that the loving gutters overlap. I'm pretty sure one house fire could easily take out an entire block.   )Want to purchase a stand alone property in this wonderful neighbourhood where a 25 year old woman had several fingers cut off during a random sexual assault two days ago? A tear-down will run in you in the $750k-range, with a fixer upper easily a million plus. You too could live next door to Vancouver's worst neighbourhood! e. fixed link Dillbag fucked around with this message at 06:08 on Mar 28, 2015 |
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Mar 28, 2015 01:27
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PSWII60 posted:When I said good deal I mean I paid about 6,000 plus another 2,500 in back taxes. So I didn't have to finance anything. Am I reading this right and you're saying you paid $8,500 for a house and you are complaining that it is poorly built/maintained?
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May 26, 2015 01:37
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Fair enough, I didn't mean to suggest that you have no right to complain about deficiencies. But you probably shouldn't be too surprised!
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May 26, 2015 02:53
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SubCrid TC posted:Anyone have the website of the home inspector with the hilariously in depth reports and maintenance manual that comes up every once in a while in the thread? He's around Vancouver and I think I'm going to try and convince a friend to use him. This is the guy you are probably thinking of, we used him for our inspection - http://www.theco.ca/ e. Yep, here's my old post: Dillbag posted:This guy did our home inspection. I got a 25-page report similar to this (without as many deficiencies, of course) and I got to watch him freak the poo poo out of my realtor. Best $650 I've ever spent.
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Jun 5, 2015 00:41
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Sorry to double post, but I should stress that the guy is not a big fan of realtors. If your friends have a working relationship with theirs I don't recommend putting them both in the same place at the same time if you can avoid it. I don't think my realtor (who we actually trust and have a good relationship with) was too impressed with some of his "all realtors are out to get you and you don't need one" comments. oh god please don't start a realtor derail
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Jun 5, 2015 00:44
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Baronjutter posted:I can't remember if it was this thread or another but a bunch of people who worked construction were saying the owner needs to stay away and not "spy" and warn the workmen when they're coming and it was "disrespectful" and "annoying" to be snooping around. It's your own loving property you can hover there all day, specially when so many workers do awful awful work if no on else is around. If I was having a house built I'd be there multiple times a day inspecting the gently caress out of everything. I don't care if the trades like that or not, I don't want a meat-void in my house or corners cut. There's a big fat line between overseeing the work being done and being unreasonably overbearing. Dropping by at the end of the day to go over the work with your general contractor and look for deficiencies or concerns is totally reasonable. But hovering over the crew all day is going to end up costing you twice as much because you're micromanaging and nothing will ever get done. And if you think you had lovely workers before, just wait until all your skilled tradesmen say "gently caress this" and move on to another project where the homeowner isn't hovering over their shoulders and telling them how to do their jobs. If you don't trust your general contractor to manage the work and act in your best interests then you either didn't hire the right g.c., or you've signed a lovely contract that doesn't protect you in the event of completion delays / poor workmanship, or you don't have a contract at all.
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Aug 21, 2015 19:07
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